SURFERS’
SANCTUARY
THE SHACK

Iconic structure a temple to locals who have kept the spot’s legacy alive

The original posts were constructed from eucalyptus trees collected at nearby Camp Matthews, now a part of the UC San Diego campus. Given the abundance of palm trees swaying nearby, importation wasn’t required for the fronds.

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The Shack rests at an angle to the shore rather than parallel. Line up two of the posts and they point directly to Windansea’s optimum break.

The geometry was not planned. Oakey, who died in 2004, created the Shack at an angle to sit atop the sandstone promontory on which it originally stood.

“It just seemed like an aesthetic thing to do,” he told the Union-Tribune in 1998. “That spit of land went out at an angle and the (offshore) reef is at an angle like that, too.”

Windansea owes its fame to the triangular-shaped reef positioned off the shore. The reef forces water upward, creating — when the swell’s right — powerful waves that serve as a magnet for big-wave adventurists.

Put another way: you cut your teeth elsewhere before dropping in at Windansea.

Walking into the water, the floor dips quickly, making it dangerous even for swimmers. Carl Eckstrom didn’t learn to swim until he was 11. Before that, Carl was saved more than once when he ventured too deep into Windansea.

“Sometimes, people just happened to be in the water and pulled me out,” he said.

On Sept. 24, 1954, Robert Simmons dived into Windansea when the swell was pounding.

“It was a strong eight feet,” says Carl Eckstrom, who was 13 at the time and watched Simmons surf that day. “It was a clean, beautiful, sunny day.”

Simmons’ orange board washed ashore, but there was no sight of the surfer. His clothes were stashed where he always stored them — nestled in one corner of the Shack.

Windansea regulars walked up and down the beach that night, searching for their friend. His body was not found. The next morning, the surf kicked up even higher, and Carl Eckstrom paddled out.

“The older kids would call you on it if you didn’t,” he says.

Three days after Simmons disappeared, his body washed ashore.

Describing the adrenaline rush that lures surfers to Windansea, Carl Eckstrom says, “It’s almost like standing on a railroad track, the train’s coming and not knowing if you’re on the right track. It’s visceral.”

Between the surf and carefree partying lifestyle, Windansea attracted an eclectic crowd in the ’60s when surfing zoomed in popularity. There were the macho big-wave riders like the late Butch Van Artsdalen.

A local Navy brat, Van Artsdalen never backed down from a fight, in or out of the water.

“Just trying to be No. 1 top dog,” says Billy Graham, now 74, who surfed Windansea as a kid and still lives in Bird Rock. “Nobody screwed around with him.”

Tom Wolfe’s fictional “The Pump House Gang” is based on time the dapper novelist spent hanging around Windansea. Andy Warhol created a film linked to the landmark beach.

Merryweather, a former New York model who hung in Wolfe’s circle, gallantly protects Windansea and the Shack, panning Wolfe’s and Warhol’s art.